Formless system of concrete construction



L. N. BUTLER.

FORMLESS SYSTEM OF CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 23,19I9- Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

UNITED STATES LOUIS N. BUTLER, OF WYLIE, MINNESOTA.

FORMLESS SYSTEM OF CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

Application filed December 23, 1919. Serial No. 346,966.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LoUIsN. BUTLER, a citizenof Wylie, in the county of Pennington and State of Minnesota, haveinvented a new and useful way of building with concrete, to be known asFormless Systems of Concrete Construction.

This invention relates to concrete construction, and particularly totheformation of walls, piers, abutments, or like structural elements, andthe object of the invention is to enable a concrete wall or likestructure to be built without the necessity of using forms.

A further object is to economize in the use of concrete, cement and likematerial, particularly in sections of the country where there is asufiiciency of wood but where transportation is difficult and it is hardto get concrete.

A further object is to provide a composite wall of concrete and wood soconstructed that the wood is entirely embedded in the concrete, thuspreserving the wood, while at the same time the wood fills up the spacewhich would ordinarily be taken up by concrete, thus economizing on theconcrete, and at the same time forming a wall which is solid, strong,and which, to all intents and purposes, is as good as a solid concretewall.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Thefigure is a fragmentary perspective view of a wall constructed inaccordance with my invention.

This wall consists of concrete 2 and wooden blocks 1. These blocks 1 arepreferably sections of logs of irregular shape and of any desireddiameter, though preferably the logs or sections will have more or lessuniform diameter, these logs being preferably split into half sections,though not necessarily so.

In the building of a wall in accordance with my invention, a layer ofconcrete 2 is placed upon the foundation and then a layer of these logsor blocks 1 is disposed upon the concrete layer while the latter isstill wet. Then concrete is placed over these logs so as to thoroughlyembed the same. The logs may be entirely embedded, that is the wall maybe covered on both surfaces with concrete, or the concrete simply putover the top of the layer of logs, leaving the ends of the logs exposed.The irregular shape of to the layer below, and I have found in prac ticethat this gives a wall of great strength and solidity with the use ofonly a minimum of concrete. Furthermore, these logs permit sheathing tobe readily attached to the con- 7 crete wall by nailing the sheathing tothe logs. The endsof the logs may, of course, be painted, tarred on theoutside, or otherwise coated so as to prevent the inlet of moisturewhere the ends of the logs project flush with the outer face of theconcrete. As before remarked, this system of building walls isparticularly valuable in sections of the country where there is plentyof timber but where it is difiicult to get concrete, and also permitsthe very rapid building of a wall without the necessity of using anyforms whatever, the logs acting to hold the concrete together and permitthe opposite faces of the wall to be smoothed off by a trowel orordinary tools.

I claim 1. A wall composed of a mass of artificial stone and billets ofwood, the billets being disposed in approximately horizontal coursesadjacent to but separated from each other and embedded in the artificialstone, each billet extending transverselyof the length of the wall andbeing formed of sections of tree limbs in their natural state, theartificial stone filling the spaces around and between the billets.

2. A wall composed of a mass of artificial stone and billets of wood,the billets being disposed in approximately horizontal courses adjacentto but separated from each other and embedded in the artificial stone,each billet extending transversely of the length of the wall and beingformed of sections of tree limbs in their natural state, the artificialstone filling the space around and between the billets and the ends ofthe billets extending to the surface of the artificial stone

